The unsuccessful campaign of Prince Igor Svyatoslavich of Novgorod-Seversky with his closest relatives against the Polovtsians is the basis of the "Lay of Igor's Regiment" and is recorded in two chronicles: the Southern Russian (preserved in the Ipatiev chronicle) and the Northern Russian (Lavrentievsky vault). The latter was reflected in the text of many later chronicles, but most of them underwent significant changes.

Placed under the year 1186 in the Lavrentiev Chronicle, the story is typical of the Vladimir-Suzdal chronicle of the era of feudal fragmentation. The first part-a story about the preparation of the battle - is small in volume and contains mainly traditional elements of the genre: a list of the forces gathered by the prince, and a description of the situation that developed before the battle. The author conveys the words of the Olgovich princes who gathered for the campaign with obvious ill-will towards them and, emphasizing their self-confidence, precedes the hero's speech with a remark in which he reminds readers that Igor and his relatives did not take part in the united campaign of the Southern Russian princes before. The given speech of Polovtsians is informative and informs about their awareness of current events.

The central part of the story contains a story about the course of military operations. In comparison with the tradition already established by that time, the brevity of the descriptions of the two battles is noteworthy. The first of them, with insignificant Polovtsian forces, was successful for the Olgovichi,

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practically only mentioned. But after reporting the defeat of the Polovtsians, the author gives a lengthy speech of the Olgovichi, rejoicing in the victory and boasting that they will go "to the bow of the sea, where neither our grandfathers went, and we will take our glory and honor to the end." These words emphasize the characteristics of the characters already given in the first part: shortsightedness and arrogance.

The author tells in detail about the gathering of forces by the Polovtsians and their cunning: waiting for the main forces to approach, they skirmished with Russian soldiers for three days, not letting them go to the water. The following description of the battle gives some details of the battle: the warriors finally made their way to the river, where they were attacked by enemies and pinned down to the water. This description is supplemented by several military formulas: the squads are many and many; the battle of evil was great; and our wrath of God was destroyed; the whole squad was beaten, and the other was wounded and that was ulcerated.

Twice in this description - at the beginning and at the end - quotes from the books of the prophets are used: with their help, in the first case, the author condemns the unreasonable campaign of the Olgovichi, in the second-tells about the sadness that engulfed the Russian people.

In the third part of the story, it is reported that the news of Igor's defeat was brought to Russia by a merchant (guest), whom the Polovtsians ordered to pass on to the princes: "Go your own way, and we will go our own way to you." It is briefly told about the grief of the princes, about Svyatoslav's gathering of troops and the flight of the Polovtsians, after which the Russian princes dispersed to their lands.

A separate fragment is devoted to the defense of Pereyaslavl, besieged by the Polovtsians. During the battle described briefly, Prince Vladimir Glebovich was seriously wounded.

The last episode contains a message about Igor's escape from captivity and pursuit of him, accompanied by a biblical quote and comparison.

The story ends with the chronicler's arguments about the reason for the failure of the princes, which he sees in the sins of the Russian people who suffered God's punishment.

The nature of the narrative, the small number of specific historical details, the non-expansion of the description of battles indicate that the Suzdal chronicler is a contemporary of the events described. His goal was not to give a detailed account of the facts, but to evaluate them and express his opinion about the Princes Olgovich, whose attitude in the Vladimir - Suzdal chronicles is mostly negative.

More than three centuries after the campaign, the all-Russian code of 1497 was written. The chronicler included in it a story about the campaign of Prince Igor, based on the text from the Laurentian chronicle, but consistently shortening it, while adhering to certain techniques. The most notable of them was the removal or reduction of the speeches of the actors, and the remaining monologues retained only the plot function, contributing to the development of events.

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The late copyist editor removed from the text fragments related to the expression of the author's position: quotes from the prophets (one of them begins and the other ends the picture of the second battle), a description of the feelings of Russian princes who received information about the defeat of Igor. There are no final arguments about the sins of the Russian people as the reason for the defeat of the Olgovichi. Thus, the clearly expressed negative position of the chronicler of the XII century was replaced by the editor of the XV century with an objective one: he does not express any attitude to the heroes and events. At the same time, the providential motive in explaining Igor's defeat is removed.

The narrative is also changing. Consecutive reports on the course of military operations disappear from it, a detailed story about the gathering of troops by the Polovtsians and their tricks before the start of the second battle is removed; its description is reduced to the formula: "And byst sicha evil", supplemented with a single clarification: "and peshi biyakhusya". The story of the siege of Pereyaslavl was also shortened: in fact, the editor only mentioned the fate of Prince Vladimir Glebovich. Igor's escape from captivity is reported succinctly: "The same summer Prince Igor uteche at Polovtsy", removed from the text mention of the chase, the biblical quote and comparison with Saul and David.

From the descriptions of battles, military formulas are practically excluded, except for the squad already mentioned in male from the description of the battle of Pereyaslavl.

As a result of the changes, the narrative becomes simpler, extremely informative, listing the key points of events, devoid of any interest in the personalities and destinies of the characters. Subjective biases and assessments disappear, replaced by the position of an objective narrator who does not sympathize with the characters, but also does not condemn them.

The text of the early story in the Tver Chronicle also underwent changes. It includes two headings: at the beginning "About izgibeli Olgovy vnutsekh", and before the story about the siege of Pereyaslavl - "The arrival of Polovtsian on Vladimir Glebovich Pereyaslavsky". The last title begins a section that includes a story, much abridged by the editor, about Svyatoslav's gathering of the Russian princes ' troops, as well as a story about the siege of Pereyaslavl. These two parts are placed after the story of Igor's escape from captivity, which violates the chronology of events. Thus, a single text of the early chronicle, in which the story of the defense of the Russian land after the defeat of Igor was part of the third part of the military story, was turned by the editor of the Tver collection into two separate plots: the first - about Igor's campaign, ending with his escape from captivity, the second - about the defense of the southern Russian principalities. This is achieved by introducing a second header and breaking the sequence of events.

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In the main part of the story, the nature of the changes resembles the vault of 1497, except for the work on the direct speech of the characters: it is mostly preserved. So, the descriptions of battles are consistently reduced: a significant part of the details of the second battle of Igor with the Polovtsians is removed, the story about the movement of Svyatoslav's troops is excluded; as in the code of 1497, the description of the siege of Pereyaslavl is reduced to one phrase, while the formula in the male squad has disappeared.

In the text of the Tver collection, quotations included in the editorial board of the Lavrentiev Chronicle and comparisons from the Bible were removed: at the beginning and at the end of the second battle, in the scene of Igor's escape, as well as the final didactic reasoning. However, after reporting the victory in the second battle, the editor introduced a new quote-saying that there was no one to even bring news of the defeat of the Russians, he added:: "For transgressions and for proud praise, as he writes: Glory, O Lord, that all flesh may not glory before God, that he who is strong in his own strength may not boast."

Thus, the editor who compiled the Tver collection in 1534 showed independence in his approach to the text. He, on the one hand, as well as the editor of the code of 1497, sought to reduce the actual data on the course of military operations, but, on the other hand, tried to preserve the appearance of characters and individual replicas that convey the author's attitude to events. At the same time, he tried to give more plot completeness to the story of Igor's campaign, singling out a separate episode with the title Polovtsian campaign against Russia and moving Igor's escape from captivity to the main narrative with a violation of the chronology.

The revision of the text of the story, made in the "Vladimir Chronicler", is very independent. The general direction of changes is the same as in the previous two chronicles: the removal of biblical quotations and the author's reasoning, the reduction of speeches of actors and descriptions of the battle. At the same time, the editor-copyist of the Vladimir Chronicler was inclined not to remove parts of the text altogether, but to replace them with a more concise presentation. Thus, a lengthy fragment of the story based on the Laurentian chronicle from the words: "And the whole squad came with him, many many", to "there was no one who brought the news for our sin" was replaced in a later version with one sentence: "And after this came the Polovtsian multitude, and came to Russia, and the Polovtsian princes won and I beat up a lot of them, and inech princes izymash rukama, and do not miss who and lead dati to the Russian land of sin for our sake." Along with the reduction of the actual details of the description of the battle, the image of the fear of the Olgovichi at the sight of the strength of the opponents and the quote from the prophet condemning the conceit of the princes disappeared from the stories. It can be noted that by replacing a fragment of an earlier story with his own, the chronicler retains traditional stylistic formulas that describe the course of events in the most general form.

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Lexical substitutions are observed throughout the entire text of the work. So, in the speech of the Olgovichs before the start of the campaign, instead of the words "we will get praise", the turn "we will take glory" is used, in the speech of the Polovtsians "Our brothers are beaten and our fathers and friends are taken away, and now they are coming at us", part of the phrase is removed, and the ending is added: "Our brothers are beaten", and now Russia is coming they want to consume us all."

Like the editor of the Tver collection, the author of the Vladimir Chronicler gave a passage about the siege of Pereyaslavl in his own way. But if the first of the editors turned it into an independent story, the second turned the description of events, while violating their actual course: "They also heard the princes who departed, and came to Pereyaslavl and ate a lot of evil... Vladimir Glebovich shut himself up in the city, and the Polovtsians turned back." The description of the battle on the outskirts of Pereyaslavl, in which Vladimir Glebovich showed heroism, disappears, it turns out that he, without trying to resist the enemies, shut himself up in the city. After this passage, only one phrase is saved in the later story: "Po maleh dneh uteche Igor knyaz u polovtsii" - the story of the chase and the accompanying quote and comparison are removed.

Although the editor of the Vladimir Chronicler tried, like his contemporaries, to reduce the text, but his work differs from them - he does not exclude fragments, but replaces them with a more generalized and concise account of events.

The trend outlined in the above-mentioned codices received its logical conclusion in the Vologda-Perm and Ustyug chronicles. In the first of them, all the biblical quotations and arguments of the author are excluded, and the first two abbreviated replicas of the Olgovichs are preserved from the speeches of the actors. Immediately after the second speech, the entire subsequent course of events is transmitted in a short form: "And Igor Svyatoslavich went with his son dvema from Bratonichi for the Don, and not the leading God's buildings, and there they won without being known, some guests brought the news to Russia." Thus, all descriptions of battles and the story about the consequences of the campaign (Svyatoslav's gathering of troops, the campaign of the Polovtsians to Pereyaslavl, Igor's escape from captivity) disappeared from the text. The chronicled military tale was reduced almost to the size of a weather record, from which this genre once developed, the narrative text turned into a message.

And in the Ustyug chronicle - the same volume and structure of the work. But here there was a shift of ideas: the Olgovichi princes go to the Horde "to the Tatars in the Polovtsian field", and there is confusion in the names of the princes going on a campaign: "Olgov's grandsons, Igorevichi, Vsevolodovich's children". Thus, real-historical details cease to matter in the perception of the chronicler, only the fact of an unsuccessful campaign remains important, as a result of which the Russian troops lost the battle.

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Summing up the observations, it can be argued that in the later editions of the story about Igor's campaign, there is a process of gradual departure from the religious and symbolic interpretation of events, which is expressed in the rejection of the chain of biblical quotations and the disappearance of the author's final digression. In addition, the editors did not consider it necessary to consistently describe military events and noted only their key points, which led to the exclusion of specific details and a number of military formulas.

Finally, in all cases, but to varying degrees, the role of the narrator decreases, his position in relation to the characters becomes more objective. Reworkings of the 12th-century monument made in the 15th and 16th centuries contain changes in the text that indicate a new worldview of the editors and their perception of the chronicle narrative as objective, carrying primarily the most important information about events. Therefore, they get rid of unnecessary, from their point of view, details, turning the narrative into a series of brief messages.

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